Will Travel For Books

Once again, I surpassed my goal (40). On average, I read 1 book a week...a total of 52 books. Some good, a few fantastic, and others just meh. But overall a fantastic year in the books! 😁 My average rating - on a scale from 1 to 5 - was 3.8 (oddly this was also my average rating in 2017). Another interesting stat (pulled from Goodreads), I read a total of 16,896 pages in 2018.

2018 was a great year. After having 2 major spinal surgeries over the last 3 years, this past year was my most healthful in nearly 10 years. Both of our children are in school full-time: Caroline in First Grade, Conor in Kindergarten. They both go to San Antonio Christian School and we absolutely love it! We were blessed to be able to go on a few vacations (and staycations). My wife and I enjoyed a weekend getaway to Denver in March. Along with a few friends, we spent the weekend in Houston and took in an Ed Sheeran concert. We surprised our daughter on her birthday in September by taking her to a Taylor Swift concert, also in Houston. in August, my wife and I made our annual trek to Las Vegas. And, in October, my wife's parents holidayed with us in London, UK and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Being my in-law's first time in London, we were their tour guides. My father-in-law used to live in Amsterdam, therefore he showed us around this beautiful eclectic city. A wonderful holiday! I am still traveling a lot for work and in 2018 I went to 12 different states: Illinois (2), Colorado (2), California, Washington, D.C. (4), Alabama (3), Florida, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah (2), Oklahoma, Nevada, & South Carolina (2).

The Order Of The Day by Eric Vuillard (This literary history piece about the rise of Hitler and how big corporations assisted in his rise won the 2017 Prix Goncourt. To me, this was also a complete snooze fest.)

My favorite book series I read this year:

The Sully Series (Nobody's Fool & Everybody's Fool) by Richard Russo. (Where I discovered one of my favorite fictional characters ever. And if you haven't heard me say it yet, it is true...if I could write like anyone I might just choose Richard Russo!)

Here are some photos of the series I read in 2018 (Planning to finish the Empire heptalogy in 2019)...

​A look at all the books I read in 2018, in one photo!

Here is the complete list of the books I read in 2018 and a rating for each (listed in order read):

The Overstory by Richard Powers *****The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner ****The Long Take by Robin Robertson ****Washington Black by Esi Edugyan ****​Milkman by Anna Burns ****Everything Under by Daisy Johnson ***Magic by William Goldman ****Flights by Olga Tokarczuk ***The Order Of The Day by Eric Vuillard ***An Artist Of The Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro ****

Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan *****The Tale Of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu ***Noir by Christopher Moore ****Sabrina by Nick Dranso *****A Plantation Christmas by Julia Peterkin ****Midpoint by John Updike ****Tossing And Turning by John Updike ****

Here are a few photos from our vacations and staycations...

Hope you all had a fantastic 2018 and I wish you all an even better 2019!